What does the Day-to-Day of a Product Marketing Manager look like?
I discussed overall product marketing responsibilities in a previous post, but I often get asked what a day in the life of a product marketing manager looks like.
A typical day can be different based on what initiative is being prioritized that day, and days will look different based whether you are focused on B2B or B2C.
For example, if you’re focusing on your enterprise business, you might spend more time discussing sales plays or getting feedback from the direct sales team leadership. But if you’re focusing more on your B2C business, you’ll spend more time discussing merchandising and messaging with web and commerce teams.
Regardless of the business focus, you’ll likely spend a fair amount of time with data analysis, insights gathering, presentation creation, and meetings for cross-functional alignment.
For illustrative purposes, here’s an example day:
- 8:30am-9am: Tech news, email catchup
- 9am-10am: Product team meeting- discuss new feature launch and prep for product strategy session
- 10am-11am: RTB “Run the business” meeting — track business performance and hear updates from cross-functional teams on key initiatives
- 11am-12pm: Customer research meeting with vendor and internal team to review questionnaire.
- 12pm-1pm: Catching up on emails over lunch
- 1pm-3pm: 1:1’s with team and manager
- 3pm-4pm: Free time for emails or chat conversations
- 4–4:30pm: Sales Operations meeting — reviewing performance of sales plays
- 4:30pm-5pm: TAM analysis meeting — review opportunity sizing
- 5–6pm: Work on presentations for upcoming meetings
I try to answer emails in between meetings and especially as we are currently working from home, I try to stretch my legs for a walking meeting (sometimes inside!) when I can.
You will spend your time differently based on your product marketing role as well as what strategic priority is most pressing.
- As a product marketing director, I spend more time in meetings with leadership either presenting or discussing my business or learning about new strategic initiatives from other teams that I may impact my business.
- As a product marketing manager, you spend more time creating and refining analyses and deliverables (presentations, customer-facing content, etc), and you may have fewer meetings.
What are your thoughts? Would love to hear what jives and what doesn’t.
If you’re just starting out in product marketing or considering a transition, check out my product marketing classes:
- Product Marketing Bootcamp class for new and aspiring marketers to learn the essentials of end-to-end strategic product marketing so you can launch with confidence. Learn more.
- Product Marketing Resume Boost is the only online course that teaches you how to tailor your resume specifically for product marketing manager roles. Learn more.
